- The long-term goals of this new laboratory are to understand mechanisms of cell communication that influence cutaneous development and wound repair. The focus of the current proposal is to study the expression and regulation of the syndecan gene family in skin. Although expression of cell surface syndecans has been linked with changes in cell behavior, little is known about its various roles in skin. The principal investigator has shown previously that syndecan expression changes in the skin during dynamic cellular events such as embryogenesis and wound repair. Thus, factors that induce syndecans (synducins) are likely to be important during normal development, during wound repair, and also in skin disease. A novel peptide, (PR-39), found during wound repair in the pig, has been found by the principal investigator to induce syndecans on the surface of fibroblasts and endothelial cells. No synducins other than this are currently known. Furthermore, the mechanism of action of this unique peptide is not understood. Therefore, the goal of this research plan is to learn more about synducins and syndecan regulation as it pertains to skin development, wound repair, and disease. The specific aims are: 1) To identify human synducin(s) by purification based on bioactivity, immunoreactivity, or sequence homology to the porcine synducin PR-39; 2) to describe the consequence of synducin activity in skin by analysis of cell behavior in response to induced syndecans and examining the expression of syndecans and synducin expressed during wound repair and skin diseases, and 3) to investigate the mechanism of response to synducin by localization of binding partners.